Flud vs tTor­rent vs uTor­rent: Which Is the Eas­i­est Tor­rent Down­loader for Android?

10 Apr 2015

If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve got a monster in your pants. I mean your pants pocket. We’re all moving around carrying what can only be described as miniature computers. They have RAM in GBs, bus speed that rivals that of desktop computers and 5.5 inch screens with resolution higher than the 15.6 inch Windows laptop at your desk.

It’s natural you’d want to use this to be your only go-to device for as much as possible. And that big beautiful screen is great for watching movies, TV shows and videos. But if you’re the kind of person who likes to/has to torrent their media intake, you probably download them on your PC, then transfer them to your phone/tablet to consume media on the train or the bus or when you’ve got a long flight.

But your Android phone is already capable of downloading torrents for you. All you need is stable Wi-Fi, an ability to search and procure torrents, a phone with charged up battery, and you’re all set.

Now, let’s talk about the best torrent apps for Android.

The Best: Flud

In my opinion, Flud is the best torrent app for Android out there. If you’re new to this, you probably shouldn’t even waste your time with others. Just download Flud and get going.

Let me tell you why. Flud’s UI is guided by Material Design and it looks and works way better than others on this list. The app is free with ads but in my experienced the ads are generally unobtrusive (only banner ads). Flud Pro lets you get rid of ads by paying just $1.99.

Flud gets the little things about downloading torrents right. You can select/deselect files to download after adding a torrent. You get download information from the notification drawer where there’ll also be a clear Shutdown button.

Flud shines in the Settings menu. If you’ve downloaded torrents on the desktop, you know it’s important to monitor things like your seeding ratio, the number of connections and auto shutdown. Flud provides all those options – even in the free client (for other apps on this list, it’s a paid upgrade).

Here are some settings of note:

Only download when connected to Wi-Fi

Shutdown the app when the download is complete

Keep the app always running in the background (if you use RSS for auto downloading)

Keep CPU awake: It’s a risky affair but if you see that the download speed drops when the phone is locked, use this option

Download only when charging

Battery limiter: Automatically stop the download when the battery reaches below a level

It’s filled with ads – the obtrusive kind. Flud’s free app only shows banner ads. uTorrent displays fullscreen ads that show up randomly. One of them made me wait for 5 seconds before closing.

But the big reason why you shouldn’t use uTorrent or BitTorrent, which is the exact clone of uTorrent, except for a different color scheme, is the lack of a meaningful free tier. You don’t get the two power features of battery saving mode and auto shutdown. This means even after you’re done downloading, uTorrent will keep your phone awake and drain the battery.

Man, Torrenting on Android is Hard

I’m not talking about the apps themselves. Flud itself is easy to use. But the sheer process of looking for torrents, dodging the 53 million popup ads and finally getting the torrent started… then remembering to shutdown the app and the seeding to make sure your phone survives the day.

The searching part can’t be taken care of. Google Play Store doesn’t allow apps to search torrent sites, because piracy. We’ll need to look into third party solutions for that. If I find anything good, I’ll let you know.

The second part can be taken care of only if you mess with the settings. Use the battery saver mode, remember to stop seeding, and exit the app when you’re done.

Safe torrenting.

Last updated on 8 Feb, 2018
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